Ikmal Tahdhib al-Kamal - al-Tarajim al-Saqita min Harf al-Ha
- Author died
- 762 AH
- Editions
- دار المحدث للنشر والتوزيع
Ikmal Tahdhib al-Kamal – al-Tarajim al-Saqita min Harf al-Ha (The Omitted Biographies from the Letter Ḥāʾ in Ikmal Tahdhib al-Kamal) is a specialized biographical text by the Hanafi hadith scholar Ala al-Din Mughaltay (689–762 AH / 1290–1361 CE), edited to restore a missing segment from the printed edition of his broader biographical dictionary, Ikmal Tahdhib al-Kamal fi Asma' al-Rijal .
Background and Context
Mughaltay commenced writing his principal biographical work, Ikmal Tahdhib al-Kamal, in 744 AH as an extensive critical supplement and continuation of al-Mizzi's (d. 742 AH) Tahdhib al-Kamal fi Asma' al-Rijal . Whereas many contemporaries abridged al-Mizzi’s work, Mughaltay focused on rectifying omissions, supplying missing narrators included in the Six Books, providing implicit and explicit evaluations of reliability and criticism (al-jarḥ wa-l-taʿdīl), and adding biographical data such as teachers, students, lineages, and kunyas .
When Ikmal Tahdhib al-Kamal was published in twelve volumes by Dar al-Faruq in 1422 AH (2001 CE), edited by Adil ibn Muhammad and Usama ibn Ibrahim, a substantial portion of entries falling under the Arabic letter ḥāʾ (ح) was omitted from the printed text .
Scope and Contents
This publication gathers and edits the missing section directly from manuscript copies of Mughaltay's work . The scope of entries spans alphabetically within the letter ḥāʾ, opening with the biographical entry for al-Hasan al-Basri and concluding with the entry for al-Hakam ibn Sinan .
Within these entries, the text records Mughaltay’s critical remarks, supplementary narrator transmissions, verification of narrators cited in early compilations, and documentation of narrator appraisals from classical authorities .
Editorial History
The omitted text was edited and studied as an academic collaborative project by master's degree students in the Division of Tafsir and Hadith within the Department of Islamic Culture at King Saud University during the 1424–1425 AH academic year . The work was supervised by Dr. Ali ibn Abd Allah al-Sayyah and introduced by Dr. Muhammad ibn Abd Allah al-Wuhaybi, the head of the department . It was published in a single volume by Dar al-Muhaddith in Riyadh in 1426 AH (2005 CE) .
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